Inside a Myanmar scam call center compound: sex, drugs, forced labor
Another troubling story about a fraud victim. As I’ve previously reported, 74 year old Ann Mayer was arrested for trying to rob a credit union in a Cincinnati suburb recently. She had a gun, had taken the license plates off of her car, and had mentioned robbing a bank to family members recently. She was arrested and charged. She had no criminal record. She got $500.
Family members say she was a scam victim herself, and had been sending money to an “unidentified individual.” News articles also say that she’d lost tens of thousands of dollars; others say she lost her life savings.
But we don’t know anything about the scam. Was this a romance fraud? Did the scammer encourage the robbery? Have they tried to track down the scammer?
Police in Bosnia, Lebanon, Albania, Kosovo shut down 12 scam call centers, arrest 21; scammers were doing romance scams, investment fraud, and fake police calls
Investigation finds Chinese operation has created at least 76,000 websites for designer goods; 800,000 victims in the US and Europe; victims don’t get counterfeits, instead get nothing or something wholly different
Wired: Nigerian Yahoo boys on the internet often don’t even try to hide; have 16 Facebook groups with 200,000 members; a dozen Youtube channels, more
India busts 76 tech support operations across the country, work with Microsoft and Amazon
Iowa: Three arrested for impersonating police and sheriffs deputies, telling people that they had to pay or they would be arrested; met victims in person
US sends cybercrime advisor to Nigeria, and country adopts the 2022 international cybercrime convention
Fraud Studies: Here are links to the studies I’ve written for the Better Business Bureau: puppy fraud, romance fraud; BEC fraud, sweepstakes/lottery fraud, tech support fraud, romance fraud money mules, crooked movers, government imposters, online vehicle sale scams, rental fraud, gift cards, free trial offer frauds, job scams, online shopping fraud, fake check fraud and crypto scams
Fraud News Around the world
- Man from Turkey gets 6 1/2 years prison for sales of counterfeit Cisco networking equipment; must pay $100 million restitution
- Singapore: Three men from China get jail for sales of counterfeit smart phones
- Georgia: Police arrest Ontario man for scam where he told victim that he was with Treasury and needed her money to keep it “safe;” arrested man when he appeared in person to pick up gold he’d had her buy
- Pennsylvania: Police arrest Chinese man for grandparent fraud
- New York: Rochester police arrest two for scam claiming victim had missed jury duty and need bail; impersonated Sheriffs deputies; met victim in person to pick up money
- Brooklyn: Two men arrested who sold nonexistent Covid masks to a Canadian company; got $8.2 million
- Los Angeles: Man (Chinese?) arrested over tech support fraud when he went to victim home to pick up money
- Nigeria: Operator of Internet fraud academy gets ten years prison
- Arizona: Nigerian man is sixth to plead guilty to inheritance fraud that sent letters to victims; he was extradited from Spain; used a network of former victims to act as mules; got $6 million
Humor
- Man gets $34 billion tax bill; IRS investigating
- Florida couple arrested for making counterfeit lottery ticket for $1 million prize
FTC and CFPB
- WSJ Op/Ed: Lina Khan’s Failed FTC experiment, by Beales and Muris
- CFPB resolves case with Chime over failing to give refunds when accounts were closed
Virus Benefit Theft
- DOJ issues report on progress against Covid benefits fraud; more than 3500 prosecuted so far
- Detroit: Man sentenced to four years prison for ID theft to get unemployment benefits; got $900,000
- North Carolina: Two men get more than five years prison each for ID theft to get social security and other benefits; laundered over $ million
- Cincinnati: Man gets 6 years prison for PPP fraud, also bought firearms with stolen credit cards
- Maryland: Man pleads guilty to PPP fraud where he got $716,000; also to equipment leasing fraud
- Baton Rouge: Woman gets three years prison for PPP fraud; got $500,000
- New Hampshire: Man gets 84 months prison for ID theft to get unemployment benefits and other frauds; got over $2 million
- Interpol releases Africa cybercrime threat assessment; up 23%; most common BEC, ransomware, romance frauds
- Chicago: Man gets nine years prison for PPP fraud and failure to file taxes; got $1.2 million for PPP
- Nigeria: Court sentences 41 internet fraudsters to a year each in prison
- Tampa: Five plead guilty to hacking into small businesses across the country; laundering the money and then sending it to China; nearly $10 million involved
Kidnapping and forced to scam
Business Email compromise fraud
- Connecticut: Nigerian man who was extradited from Malaysia convicted of BEC fraud by jury
- Spain arrests thirty for BEC fraud; fake supplier invoices sent and victims asked to pay to “new” account
Ransomware and data breaches
- Texas: Ukrainian man gets nearly 14 years prison for ransomware fraud for 1600 attacks that sought $700 million in ransom
- Hits Fernando County in Florida
- New Jersey: US indicts Russian man for LockBit ransomware fraud
Bitcoin and cryptocurrency
- New York: US indicts man for crypto Ponzi scheme; defrauded investors of at least $43 million
- Netherlands: Dutch police arrest man over blockchain investment fraud; seize $12.2 million
- UK: Four men get 15 years prison for laundering crypto worth $26 million
- Six Austrians arrested by police in Czechia, Austria and Cyprus for fraud in initial coin offering of a new crypto; seize €750,000
ATM Skimming
Romance Fraud and Sextortion
- UK National Crime Agency issues alert to UK teachers about big jump in online extortion fraud; most involve boys taped and money demanded
- Brooklyn: Man from Ghana gets four years prison for laundering money from romance scam victims; handled $7 million and sent money to Ghana
- FBI’s IC3 warns scammers are now sending “free online verification” notices to users of dating sites; collect personal information and may sign people up for subscriptions